Cyprus President meets with Spehar ahead of dinner with Akinci

Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades receives today Elizabeth Spehar, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative and Deputy Special Adviser on Cyprus, at the Presidential Palace, ahead of his informal dinner with the Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci next week.

Spehar will host the dinner for President Anastasiades and Akinci on Monday at her residence in the UN-controlled buffer zone, in Nicosia. This will be the first time the two men will meet after the Crans Montana Conference on Cyprus, last summer, which ended inconclusively.

She also had a meeting with Akinci on Tuesday.

In a statement to CNA UNFICYP Spokesperson Aleem Siddique has said that “the Deputy Special Advisor looks forward to hosting the leaders for their informal meeting on the 16th of April and she will continue her contacts with both sides in preparation of this meeting.”

President Anastasiades and Akinci have been engaged in UN-backed negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem. The latest round of talks took place in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans Montana but failed to yield any results.

UN talks aim at reuniting Cyprus, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion, under a federal roof.